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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This story appears in the May 18, 2015, issue of &lt;/em&gt;Sports Illustrated&lt;em&gt;. Subscribe to the magazine here.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At lunchtime KeiVarae Russell bursts into a fish restaurant in Seattle and greets a stranger with a hug. Wearing a baggy gray hoodie and an easy smile, Russell sits at an oversized table and begins to speak. And speak. And speak. The syllables blur together as he leans in closer. \u201CEvery game you learn and grow,\u201D he says, recalling a 41\u201330 loss to Michigan in September 2013, when he got burned for two touchdowns. \u201CEven that game, the situation I went through, I wouldn\u2019t take that back because I learned in life, you have to be what you aren\u2019t to get to where you are. I thought I was better than I was, but Michigan exposed [me]. As that season went on, you saw me progress. Earlier in the year I had three touchdowns scored on me; the rest of the year I didn\u2019t have a touchdown scored on me\u2014[NBC analyst] Mike Mayock preaching I\u2019m one of the best in the country. I thought I was one of the best, I was 19, 20 years old. False confidence. Michigan exposed that, and I really went to work and started training like a pro.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bouncing from first person to third and topic to topic, Russell\u2019s thoughts rush out in 2,000-word sermons. Among the subjects he covers are his first carry in peewee football\u2014a nearly 60-yard touchdown\u2014and his career at Mariner High in Everett, Wash., where he was the first freshman to make varsity, was voted student body president and earned a 3.75 GPA. \u201CParents get proud moments,\u201D says his mother, Yolanda Phillips. \u201CI stayed in a proud moment with this guy.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Russell then goes long on Notre Dame, where he arrived in 2012 as a tailback before switching positions in summer camp and becoming the first true freshman to open the season as a starting cornerback. That spring, he auditioned for and won a lead role in the campus production of &lt;em&gt;Intimate Apparel&lt;/em&gt;. Russell says he held a 3.0 in marketing heading into his junior season, after which he was projected as an early-round NFL draft pick.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But last August school officials told Russell that he and three teammates couldn\u2019t practice while the school looked into potential honor code violations for academic dishonesty. (A fifth player came under scrutiny two weeks later.) Two months of investigations and appeals ended with a two-semester suspension for Russell. He could have transferred or dropped down to FCS for a season, then declared for the draft, in which he was still likely to have been a middle-round pick. \u201CWhen you go through something as important as almost getting football and a college degree stripped away from you,\u201D he says, \u201Cyou take a deep breath.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If so, it might have been his first. When Russell finishes talking, it\u2019s nearly 4:30 and his lobster macaroni-and-cheese has long since congealed.\r\n\r\n\r\nNotre Dame 2015 schedule\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tdate\r\n\t\t\topponent\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 5\r\n\t\t\tTexas\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 12\r\n\t\t\tat Virginia\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 19\r\n\t\t\tGeorgia Tech\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tSept. 26\r\n\t\t\tMassachusetts\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 3\r\n\t\t\tat Clemson\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 10\r\n\t\t\tNavy\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 17\r\n\t\t\tUSC\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tOct. 31\r\n\t\t\tat Temple\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 7\r\n\t\t\tat Pittsburgh\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 14\r\n\t\t\tWake Forest\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 21\r\n\t\t\tvs. Boston College (in Boston)\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tNov. 28\r\n\t\t\tat Stanford\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*****\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It\u2019s a bitter February day in snow-covered South Bend. Irish coach Brian Kelly forces a smile when the conversation drifts to academic issues. \u201CI knew,\u201D he says, \u201Cwe were going to get here.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Notre Dame has long prided itself on executing a tricky balancing act: running a successful athletic department within an elite academic institution. In 2014 the university\u2019s graduation success rate ranked fourth among FBS programs, while the entire athletic department ranked No. 1. But Notre Dame has endured three major academic scandals in a two-year span. In the spring of 2013 quarterback Everett Golson, who led the Irish to an undefeated 2012 regular season, was dismissed for the upcoming season for something he termed \u201Cpoor judgment\u201D on a test. That winter point guard Jerian Grant left the men\u2019s basketball team for a semester for what he called an \u201Cacademic mistake.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The school charged Russell and his four teammates with receiving illicit academic help from a former student trainer. Russell admits to getting \u201Clazy\u201D and \u201Ctaking the easy way out,\u201D but beyond that only says, \u201CI didn\u2019t cheat on a test. I didn\u2019t pay people to do my homework.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Russell\u2019s involvement means that three prominent athletes on Notre Dame\u2019s campus have been suspended over academics in the past two years. \u201CWhen we recruit student-athletes, we have an obligation to provide them with the resources necessary,\u201D Kelly says. \u201CAnd if we don\u2019t, then we have fallen short. And I think that in these instances, there\u2019s culpability for everyone.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kelly wants the school to consider rethinking its approach. He says that, on average, his incoming freshman football class has a 2.8 GPA and a 24 on the ACT, while the median score for the rest of Notre Dame\u2019s freshman class is 33. (The school does not track average GPA.) None of his newest recruits could have been admitted to the school on academic merit alone. Why then, he wonders, are most players on a path to graduate in 3 1\u20442 years\u2014thanks to summer school requirements\u2014when most Notre Dame students do so in four?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There\u2019s a \u201Cchurch and state\u201D separation between athletics and academics, but Kelly has reached out to athletic director Jack Swarbrick and president the Rev. John I. Jenkins about potential changes. He says \u201Ctransformative conversations\u201D are occurring on the academic side. \u201CAre there other ways to do it?\u201D Kelly asks. \u201CCan we cut back on credit hours? Instead of taking 15 [the current practice to start a semester], can we take 12 and make it up in the summer? Are there other course offerings that could come about and be offered in lieu of a specific class? Those are conversations that had never taken place.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BSwarbrick is on board\u2014to an extent. He acknowledges that the \u201Cgap issue\u201D is more significant than when he attended Notre Dame in the mid-1970s, but he says it\u2019s the \u201Cwrong narrative\u201D to suggest that the recent high-profile suspensions are due to this gap. \u201CThese aren\u2019t the only kids that had honor code violations at Notre Dame,\u201D he says. \u201CYou\u2019ll never know about the other ones. They tell their roommate they got mono, and they go home.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the spring of 2014, Swarbrick co-chaired a 17-member task force created to examine effective ways to support \u201Cat-risk student-athletes.\u201D The takeaways proved more evolutionary than revolutionary, focusing on intensive individualized attention, a stronger summer bridge program, expansion of a writing and rhetoric tutorial, and faculty mentors. Faculty athletic representative Patricia Bellia, a law professor who was the task force\u2019s other chair, says the process made the school realize it needs to take a \u201Ccase management\u201D approach to each student, with information pooled from trainers, assistant coaches, nutritionists and anyone close to them. \u201CWe\u2019ve determined they can succeed [by admitting them],\u201D she said. \u201CHow can we make that happen on an individual level? What kind of support and resources does that individual need?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the five players suspended last fall waited for the investigation and appeal to end, there was speculation that Kelly was so frustrated, he would leave for the NFL. Kelly claims the opposite, saying he and Swarbrick grew closer sorting through the suspensions. \u201CWe\u2019ve done so many things here to put Notre Dame back in a position to compete nationally, and I kind of look at this as that last piece in making sure we\u2019re taking care of our student-athletes,\u201D he says. \u201CIt strengthened my resolve in, We\u2019re going to get this right.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[pagebreak]\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On an unseasonably warm February afternoon in Kent, Wash., KeiVarae (pronounced key-VAR-ay) is sitting in his mother\u2019s apartment. An open Bible rests on a living room shelf with Psalms highlighted in orange. A muted talk show plays on the TV, and KeiVarae\u2019s one-month old niece, Kassidy, cries in another room as he once again holds forth. \u201CThe big motivation, deep down, is that I never wanted to be anything like my father,\u201D he says of Keith Russell, who according to KeiVarae has had almost no role in his sons\u2019 lives. \u201CMy ambition comes from something bigger than me. The reason why I work so hard, it\u2019s to be something I want to be that\u2019s better than just an athlete. I want to be a better father, son and brother.\u201D That is why even though his mother and 25-year-old brother, also Keith, each dropped out of high school and later earned GEDs, KeiVarae instead became an exemplary student, winning awards for leadership and community service. \u201CIt just blew me away how he never even skipped a class in high school,\u201D says Phillips. \u201CThat\u2019s so unreal to me.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All of which made last summer\u2019s reality harder to accept. In August, a few days after the university informed Russell of the academic investigation, he visited Swarbrick, who attempted to persuade Russell to stick it out at South Bend regardless of where the investigation led. Swarbrick told Russell that the coaches would have named him a captain for 2014, the only player in the program assured of that honor. \u201CI busted out crying, just bawling,\u201D Russell says. \u201CIt was uncontrollable.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As he tried to pull himself together, Russell flashed to the day, years earlier, that he had filled out his financial aid forms. When it came time to enter Phillips\u2019s salary as an in-home nurse she gave him a number: $16,499. That led to revelations about his childhood: how his mother used food stamps to make ends meet but never let KeiVarae or Keith know; how they paid $49 a month for their apartment in the projects of Kent. \u201CThat\u2019s poverty,\u201D he says. \u201CI\u2019m living in poverty my whole life but never saw it, and at that moment I\u2019m crying, I start thinking about all that like, &lt;em&gt;I came through so much in my life and had a shot to be a captain at the University of Notre Dame as a true junior&lt;/em&gt;.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The missed opportunity ate at Russell but made him more determined. He\u2019d originally decided \u201Cto go to Notre Dame to grow,\u201D he says, and this was his chance. So he took his punishment and went back to business.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He has moved in with his grandfather, Sylvester Phillips, a retired carpenter with a small, one-story house in Everett. Most days KeiVarae is out the door by 7:30 a.m. and returns after 8 p.m., filling his time with 15 credits at Everett Community College (he says he\u2019s getting straight A\u2019s); interning at Coast Real Estate, which manages 15,000 apartment units (\u201CThe best intern we\u2019ve ever had,\u201D says CEO Tom Hoban); and training six days a week at N-S Performance with former Oregon State defensive back Anthony Watkins.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Russell expects to return to Notre Dame in June, and although he\u2019s been humbled, he still has the confidence that allowed him to slip seamlessly in and out of the locker room, the president\u2019s office and the drama department. \u201CThere\u2019s very few guys that I\u2019ve coached here at Notre Dame,\u201D Kelly says, \u201Cwho can cut across all those lines very easily.\u201D He also has the swagger to speculate that he\u2019d have a 4.0 at Notre Dame if he didn\u2019t play football and that he\u2019ll \u201Ccrush the combine.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During his time away from South Bend he\u2019s worked on toning his 195-pound, 6-foot frame. And he\u2019s been working on his bench press, an exercise that\u2019s featured at the NFL combine, where prospects show how many times they can lift 225 pounds. Russell is up to 16 but says, \u201CMark my words, KeiVarae Russell is getting 20 at the combine next year.\u201D Only three corners reached 20 reps at this year\u2019s combine, and only two ran the 40-yard dash in less than 4.4 seconds, which Russell did twice in February. (Watkins posted the video on Instagram.) Says Watkins, \u201CHe knows he\u2019s a top guy, but he knows he has a lot of work to do.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That knowledge is what will make Russell a top corner prospect in next year\u2019s draft. It is why he plans to return to Notre Dame. \u201CI still remember that day,\u201D he says toward the end of his Michigan soliloquy. \u201CPut me on an island. Let\u2019s go. I get beat a couple of times, let\u2019s go back again. I understand what it takes.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/05/18/keivarae-russell-notre-dame>